Digital Photography

with

George Haddad

Photographers workflow

1.!Take the shots using basic photography techniques.

2.!Choosing and uploading the photographs using Adobe Bridge

and/or Picasa.

3.!Edit images with basic tools using Photoshop or Picasa software.

4.!Resizing images to a suitable size depending on it’s use.

5.!Naming your files and folders and how to organize them for

quicker access, for both off and online use

6.!Different types of websites and about embedding files.

A basic photography principle.

•! If your photographs are not good enough,

you’re not close enough.

Get close

•! It takes days for some photographers to get

the shot they want. Don’t rush, take your time.

Find what you want to capture and move in.

•! In some circumstances when people or

children are involved, they’ll come closer to

you.

The rule of thirds

Try using these points

to focus your subject

on, not the center .

Use the lines as guides.

And remember

Sometimes you can break the rules.

Something to add more effect.

Tilt the camera…

•! Too much tilt will

Go vertical.

•! Architecture and people can look good in

vertical images.

•! You can also use this technique when there

are visible lines leading away from you, or tall

objects in the image.

•! When photographing people focus on their

eyes, faces and their expressions. These are

the areas where most of the attention is drawn

to.

A little about natural and artificial (flash) light.

Well maybe just a bit more than a little.

•!The word photography means light drawing.

•!The best times of day to photograph (outdoors)

are early in the morning, or late in the afternoon.

The light is softer and the low sun creates

shadows that can give an added effect.

•!Unless you want to create a silhouette effect or

are shooting a sunset, try to avoid photographing

with the sun or bright lights facing you.

Using a flash to fill in the dark areas.

•! During midday or under artificial lights, the overhead light can cause dark shadows in certain areas, you can use the flash to “fill in” those areas .

•! You can also use the flash as a fill in if the sun or bright lights are facing you. This can be used to cancel the silhouette effect.

•! Don’t use the flash to light up the image.

•! More light means you

can shoot faster, and

capture moving objects.

Keep it simple

•! Try to avoid distractions in your images.

•! Even most landscape images have a point of

focus or attention. Find a point in the image

you want to emphasis and frame it using the

rule of thirds.

•! It takes time and lots of practice to get better

at something.

•! Try to apply these tips while you’re out

photographing, and in time they will become

second nature.

Choosing and uploading your images using

Adobe Bridge or Windows file browser.

Basic editing using Photoshop.

Resizing and renaming for the web.

Uploading your images to the web. Some

useful websites to store and display your

photographs

•! www.lightstalkers.com : Social networking site for journalists

and photographers. You can create your own photo galleries

viewable to the public. It’s for free and has lots of other functions.

•! www.demotix.com : Citizen journalist site. Great place to read

and post features or breaking news from citizens and

professional journalists. You can create a photo gallery and

write an article for it. It’s free and its possible sell some

images through this site.

•! www.facebook.com : Social networking site. You can upload

photos and create galleries for people in your contact list to see. It’s free and a good way to show your work to other

people.

•!

•! www.photoshelter.com : Online gallery and archive storage.

Depending on your subscription you have certain amounts of

storage space to keep an archive of your work. You can also

create galleries for the public where your work can be viewed and sold.

•! www.flickr.com : Must have a Yahoo ID to use this website.

•! www.picasa.com : Online gallery and archive storage.

Galleries can be shared with friends or family by inviting them.

It’s for free and comes with an image editing software that you

can install on your computer, it also has an upload feature

that will upload your images directly into a gallery on the

website.